Editorial: Marinwood planning gets off to better start

It should be clear there is a better use for the forlorn neighborhood shopping center, right off Highway 101. But plans to build affordable housing on the site have divided the community, and beyond.

Both sides, however, appear to agree that the proposal should be evaluated in a thorough and independent environmental impact report.

Initial concern that the planning process would be shortcut by state and regional policies paving the way for affordable housing have helped fuel opposition to plans to build workforce housing on the site.

But those concerns were answered on March 29 with the start of a planning process. People were invited to raise questions they want to have addressed in the EIR for Bridge Housing's plan to build 82 apartments — 72 of them affordable.

To some, the lower-cost apartments are not only driving up the size of the development. They also are concerned that, because the developer is a nonprofit, the project will be exempt from property taxes that support local public schools, the community services district and county services.

The issue of tax revenue will be studied in the EIR. So will worries about traffic circulation and questions about future residents' possible exposure to pollution from the busy freeway.

The report also should provide residents an idea of what the development will look like from various viewpoints, possibly answering repeated concerns about so-called urban-like high-density housing.

For some, facts may erase their reservations.

The report should also evaluate potential alternative development possibilities and address the county's 2007 decision to build housing at the Marinwood site as a trade-off to reducing the development of housing across the freeway on the St. Vincent's and Silveira Ranch properties.

The trade-off was proposed by an impressive coalition of Marinwood residents, Marin environmental groups and affordable housing advocates.

But time has challenged that original consensus. Plans and designs have changed. More important, people who weren't part of that consensus, either because they weren't paying attention or weren't aware of community meetings held to discuss the site's future, now want a voice.

The meeting was a good start. The public dialogue was open and polite, unlike last year's community meeting on the plan.

Preparing an EIR is important to answer many questions raised during the recent debates over the future of the property.

The county Community Development Agency is taking public comment until 4 p.m. Monday.

There will be time for people to voice their support or opposition to Bridge's plans. But preparation of an EIR and involving the public at the front end of that process should help create a foundation of facts for future debates.